


Tolerance

by GriffinRose



Series: The Black Paladin [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Gen, Keith (Voltron)-centric, Post Season 2, Sad, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-19 00:49:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9410276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GriffinRose/pseuds/GriffinRose
Summary: *SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2*Keith is trying to come to terms with what happened and his new role on the team. The lions aren't all that happy about it either, but they're willing to tolerate a few changes.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So I just needed to write something after marathoning all of season 2 and I haven't seen enough of the team coming to grips with what happened yet, especially Keith. So, whalaa, have a Keith angst party where he tries to come to terms with being the new leader.

To say things were a mess was an understatement. The castle needed major repairs, and both Allura and Coran had sustained some minor injuries during the battle. The Blade of Marmora had fled as soon as Calivan had returned, barely sparing any of them a glance before taking a pod. 

Shiro was gone. 

None of them even had any explanations. He had simply vanished. And they didn’t know how to process that. 

They had limped away in their castle for a day, putting as much distance between them and the remains of Zarkon’s Command Ship as they could. No one followed them, so they took that as a good sign. 

They didn’t speak to each other besides the necessary communication to get things done. 

Keith spent the night in Red’s cockpit, curled up in the pilot’s chair. 

_If something happens to me, I want you to lead Voltron._

It was like he’d known, somehow. Keith still disagreed with his judgment though. He wasn’t leader material, especially not when he was dealing with the loss of Shiro. 

The last time he’d thought Shiro was dead he’d gone off on his teachers, punched a few of them, and got kicked out of the Garrison. In what universe did Shiro think someone like that would make a good leader? Those weren’t leadership qualities. 

“What were you thinking, Shiro?” Keith whispered, trying hard not to cry and failing. “I’ll never be half the leader you were.” 

Red growled around him. He reached a hand out to her control board and ran his fingers over it. If he did pilot Black, then who would fly Red? They’d still be down a lion. 

An image of Allura flashed through his mind. 

“You want Allura to fly you?” Keith asked.

Red growled again. This time an image of the Blue lion and Lance appeared behind his eyes, only Blue was replaced with Red. 

“You want _Lance_ to fly you?” he asked. Lance crashed into things all the time, he barely thought before doing something, and—

Keith cut his thoughts off. One of the qualities that made up the red paladin was impulsiveness. Next to Keith, Lance was the most impulsive. 

“So Allura would fly the Blue lion?” he asked. 

Red hummed. 

It could work, Keith supposed. With Slav and Coran flying the castle, they’d be able to spare Allura to pilot a lion. And with any luck, now that Zarkon was gone, they wouldn’t really need Voltron anyway. Possibly only for one last huge mission to save Shiro.

If Shiro was even still alive. 

Red forced her way into Keith’s mind, merging long enough to say more complicated sentences than could be said in pictures. _Black doesn’t think Shiro is dead. She still feels his connection, though it’s slight. All of this would only be temporary._

Keith nearly shot out of his seat. Black didn’t…Black could feel…

Shiro was alive? 

He collapsed back into his chair, hand over his mouth. He didn’t even try and hold back the tears of relief. Shiro was alive. They just had to find him. 

And he would find him. 

“Thank you, Red. Are you sure you want Lance flying you though?” Maybe Allura could pilot Black instead, and the rest of them could keep their lions as it was. 

Red disagreed with that. _Allura would need to bond to completely with the Black lion. She would overwhelm Shiro’s bond, and the tenuous connection between them would break._

“And I wouldn’t do the same thing?” 

_You are already bonded with Black, enough to fly her for now. As long as you both wish for Shiro to return to the pilot’s chair, she is willing to tolerate you._

Tolerate was a good word, Keith thought. That’s all they’d be doing. Red would tolerate Lance’s flying, Blue would tolerate Allura, and the team would have to tolerate Keith’s cruddy leadership. 

“Just until we get Shiro back, then,” Keith said. It felt like a goodbye when he stood up, and he hated that. He’d lost too many people in his life, and after seeing how far Red was willing to go to save him, redefining what the Alteans even knew about the bond between lion and pilot, Keith hadn’t thought he’d ever have to say goodbye to Red. 

_You’re still my paladin, just as Shiro is still the Black paladin. Lance will merely be my pilot._

Keith barely saw the difference, but the hum that followed him out of the cockpit was comforting. 

Red was still his lion. Their bond was too strong to break just because he was temporarily going to fly another lion. 

He walked over to the Black lion, resting a hand on her paw. She sat proud and regal, barely acknowledging him at all. 

“Hey. I know Shiro said he wanted me to lead Voltron if anything happened to him, but…you’ve got to be okay with this too. I’m not a good leader. I know I’m not good enough to take over for him. So if you think this is a bad idea, I understand. But one way or another, I’m going to get Shiro back.”

The lion had yet to move, and Keith had to wonder if she heard him at all. It was different than when he talked to Red. Red’s presence surrounded him like a blanket. Black felt like a wall. 

“He’s the one who should be flying you. Red said you still feel him, so help me get him back. He needs us, right now. We can’t let him down.” 

He felt the same judging eyes he’d felt after the wormhole, when he’d been trying to fly Black to save Shiro from those creatures. He was asking for a lot more than just a quick attack right now. 

Maybe she wouldn’t open up to him. Maybe she’d decide that Keith was right, that he wasn’t worthy to lead Voltron. He certainly didn’t feel worthy. 

She lowered her head and opened the cockpit for him. He went in and hesitated at the pilot’s chair. His chair. 

“Just until we find Shiro,” he repeated to himself. “We’re all only tolerating this until we get him back where he belongs.” 

He felt a nudge from Black, an agreement of sorts. She was trying, he realized. Neither of them wanted this, but they needed to work together to find Shiro. They’d work with each other until then. 

Now he just needed to let the others know the plan. 

Xx

He gathered them all in the control room so that Coran and Slav could keep working on some repairs in there. Well, Slav he didn’t really care about, but he thought it fair to let Coran know what was going on. He would probably have objections to Allura being a pilot, after all. 

“So what’s up?” Lance asked. 

There were a million more tactful ways to say what Keith was going to say, but tact had never been his forte and he didn’t want to drag this out longer than he had to. 

“Black is willing to let me fly her.”

Stunned silence met him, and he rushed on before he lost his nerve. 

“Shiro told me before that if anything ever happened to him, he wanted me to lead Voltron. I think he was nuts, but…I’ve flown Black before. Just for a little bit, to save Shiro when he couldn’t get to the lion, but. She let me in then, and she let me in just now in the hanger.”

“Well, that’s good, I guess, but who would fly Red?” Hunk asked. 

Keith looked at Lance. 

“Oh no, no, I fly Blue. Me and her are besties. You are not separating us.” 

“And then we’d just need someone to fly Blue, that doesn’t solve anything,” Pidge said. “The fact is we have five lions and four pilots.”

Keith’s gaze cut over to Allura, and she picked up on where he was going with this immediately. “I would fly the Blue lion, then.”

He nodded. Stunned silence again met this announcement. 

He shifted uncomfortably, crossing his arms. “All of this would only be temporary, just until we get Shiro back.”

“Keith, we don’t even know if Shiro is still—“ He cut Allura off. 

“Black can still feel him.”

At least the loud exclamations and sudden yelling was a change of pace from the stunned silence. 

“Look, all I know is Black knows he’s still alive. She doesn’t know where and she doesn’t know what happened.” 

“But he’s definitely alive?” Pidge asked. 

Keith nodded. 

“Then we get him back,” Pidge said. 

“And once we have him back everything goes back to normal?” Lance asked. “I would go back to Blue, you’d go back to Red, and Allura would stay in the castle?”

“Yeah.” 

The others glanced around at one another. Part of him wanted them to laugh in his face and call him crazy. He wasn’t a leader, they would never listen to him. And why in the world would Allura listen to him? For the last week she’d avoided him like the plague. 

“I know this isn’t ideal,” Keith said when the silence stretched too long for his comfort. “But we just have to put up with it until we find Shiro.” 

“If the Black lion is truly willing to let you pilot her,” Allura said, “then I think we need to trust her judgement.” 

Keith looked over at her and nodded once. The others slowly agreed to the idea. 

It was only temporary, after all. Just until they brought Shiro home.

**Author's Note:**

> I may or may not write more for this on the paladins bonding in their new dynamic if there's enough interest for it. Right now it's just a single piece.


End file.
